Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of California’s Landmark Malpractice Reform Law

The California Supreme Court last week (August 20, 2009) declined to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of California's landmark Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Under MICRA, patients can recover up to a quarter of a million dollars in non-economic or “pain and suffering” awards. Injured patients are also entitled to unlimited medical and economic compensation, which often amount to millions of dollars to cover true damages, such as lost wages, medical expenses, and long-term care costs. Physicians support such full compensation of injured patients.

CMA sponsored and won passage of this forward-thinking law in 1975 with overwhelming bipartisan support in response to a crisis of runaway medical liability costs and the resulting shortage of health care providers, most predominately in high-risk specialties. In this case, James Van Buren v. Sian Evans, M.D. and Yosemite Surgery Associates, the personal injury attorneys argued that MICRA's $250,000 cap on non-economic damages deprived Mr. Van Buren of his constitutional rights to a jury trial. They also argued that the cap violates constitutional provisions that prohibit the legislature from exercising judicial powers, as well as the equal protection clauses of the state and federal constitutions.

CMA, along with its coalition partners, filed an amicus brief opposing this attack on MICRA and presented oral arguments before the appellate court. CMA told the court that MICRA's limit on non-economic damages is a key component of a complex and balanced legislative plan that has ensured the availability of medical care in California. In its ruling, the appellate court agreed with CMA and rejected each of the trial attorneys' constitutional arguments. As the court noted, the legitimate state interest is to limit medical malpractice insurance costs because without MICRA insurance rates pose “serious problems for the health care system in California, threatening to curtail the availability of medical care in some parts of the state and creating the very real possibility that many doctors would practice without insurance, leaving patients who might be injured by such doctors with the prospect of uncollectible judgments.”

From CMA in bulletin 82409


Page updated: 09-15-09

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